Chapter 118
Chapter 118
The Invisibility Cloak only had one minute left. Wei Sen had no choice but to leave Meiya’s room first, quickening her pace as she headed back.
When she reached the main room, Wei Sen saw Lin Ze coming from another direction. He stepped into the main room a moment before her.
As if sensing something, the three vicious dogs swarmed over, noses to the floor as they rapidly followed the scent toward Lin Ze.
Dogs’ noses really were sharp!
At this rate, all three of those vicious dogs would sniff them out!
Wei Sen’s mind raced as she tried to think of a way out.
Lin Ze watched the dogs close in. They happened to be blocking his path out of the main room, so he could only climb onto the nearby table for the moment to avoid them.
Seeing this, Wei Sen immediately gave up on leaving through the main door. She retreated into Meiya’s parents’ room and flipped out through the window in one swift motion.
“Woof! Woof! Woof!” The three vicious dogs reached the Eight Immortals table and began barking furiously beneath it.
Lin Ze broke into a cold sweat. This was the first time in his life he’d been cornered by dogs!
“What’s going on?!” Meiya’s father sprang to his feet in alarm, his gaze falling on the empty surface of the Eight Immortals table.
Meiya’s mother’s pupils were filled with terror. “He’s… he’s back… He’s come back…”
“Impossible!” her father snapped. “He’s been dead for ages! There are no ghosts in this world! None!”
Lin Ze looked at his Watch. Only ten seconds left!
Once the Invisibility Cloak wore off, how was he supposed to explain suddenly appearing while standing on someone else’s table?
Bong-cha-ka-la-ka…?
While he was still thinking of a plan, a thunderous crash suddenly came from the front courtyard gate as it was smashed open.
The two people and three dogs were startled, and their attention was quickly drawn toward the gate.
Lin Ze seized the chance, jumped down from the table, and the Invisibility Cloak expired the instant he landed. He immediately left the main room and headed for the backyard.
In the front courtyard, Wei Sen kicked the main gate open and swaggered out, deliberately making a huge commotion to lure them away. Then she quickly ran toward the outside of the backyard wall to meet up with Lin Ze.
Lin Ze reached the backyard and, just as he had when he came in, took a running start and used the momentum to climb onto the top of the wall.
“Woof! Woof! Woof!”
But one of the black dogs noticed the movement in the backyard and came sprinting over.
Meiya’s father also sensed something was wrong and quickly gave chase.
Lin Ze swiftly jumped down from the wall, leaving Meiya’s father, who had hurried into the backyard, with only a dashing view of his retreating back.
“Who’s there?!”
An angry roar came from inside the wall.
Wei Sen was already waiting below.
“Run!”
The two of them sprinted toward the forest without looking back.
After running for a long time and making sure neither the vicious dogs nor Meiya’s parents had caught up, the two finally stopped to rest.
Panting heavily, they exchanged a glance. Both of them looked rather worse for wear.
“Thanks,” Lin Ze said. He knew Wei Sen had been the one who made the commotion at the gate.
Under those circumstances, she hadn’t abandoned him. Instead, she’d helped buy him a chance to escape.
This temporary teammate was reliable after all. At the very least, she’d saved him from using an Anomalous Artifact.
Wei Sen sent Lin Ze the photos she’d taken in Meiya’s room and said calmly, “We’re even.”
He had given her an Anomalous Artifact, and she had saved him once. They were square.
The corner of Lin Ze’s mouth lifted slightly, and he sent her the photos he had taken as well.
Wei Sen carefully examined the pictures Lin Ze sent over.
It was a dim underground room. There were shackles inside, along with severed iron chains. Spiderwebs covered the walls, and it looked as though the place had been abandoned for many years.
“Someone was once imprisoned here, but they were rescued,” Wei Sen said.
“Mm,” Lin Ze said, analyzing the situation. “The dead person Meiya’s parents are so afraid of might be the one who was imprisoned in this basement. Otherwise, why would they act so guilty?”
Wei Sen thought that made sense. She added her own analysis. “Meiya’s room shows she hasn’t been home for at least some time. And judging from the photos, her relationship with Li Shuhan and Gao Lei wasn’t simple.”
As the two analyzed the clues they had found in Meiya’s house, they tacitly headed east through the forest. In the end, as if by mutual agreement, they arrived outside the cave where the Skeleton Monster was.
Wei Sen looked at Lin Ze. How could this man be thinking exactly the same thing as her?!
The reason she had come here was because, back when Gao Lei pushed Li Shuhan off the cliff, there had been an eyewitness.
But as for that witness, only the village chief knew their identity.
Everyone understood how important this eyewitness was. Only they could tell everyone exactly what had happened between Li Shuhan and Gao Lei at the time.
Guo Lan and Lin Xiaoxue had already gone ahead to ask the village chief about it, but the village chief refused to reveal the person’s identity, citing the need to protect the eyewitness’s personal safety.
Lin Xiaoxue had immediately passed this information on to Wei Sen, so Wei Sen simply gave up on approaching the matter through the village chief and thought of another way instead.
There was one other person in the village who might know the eyewitness’s identity: the village doctor, who was completely at odds with the village chief.
Although the village doctor had told Xu You and Chen Lin some things about the past yesterday, there were still plenty of suspicious gaps in his story. Those gaps were clearly things the village doctor was deliberately hiding.
That was why Wei Sen had come to the entrance of this dangerous cave now: to pick more Snow Lotus and use it as leverage to trade for more information from the village doctor.
Lin Ze stopped and said, “You should know there’s only one Skeleton Monster inside the cave, so we’ll need to split up.”
He knew that since Wei Sen had chosen to come here, she must also be planning to use the village doctor as her breakthrough point. So he didn’t waste words. Time to get it done.
“No problem.”
“I’ll lure the Skeleton Monster away. You pick the Snow Lotus, then we’ll meet at the village doctor’s house,” Lin Ze said.
Wei Sen hadn’t expected Lin Ze to have such a gentlemanly side. He didn’t suggest making her cannon fodder to lure the Skeleton Monster away. Instead, he took the initiative to do the most dangerous part himself.
She accepted readily. No matter what anyone else did, her first priority was ensuring her own safety.
“If you can, stall the monster a little longer. I’m going into the cave. I’ll message you when I’m done,” Wei Sen added.
Lin Ze had considered asking her to go into the cave and look around for new clues, but when he thought of the horrific scene inside, he was afraid a girl like her wouldn’t be able to handle it, so he hadn’t brought it up.
But she had actually suggested going in herself, and there wasn’t the slightest hint of fear on her face.
It seemed he had underestimated her after all…
“All right.” As Lin Ze spoke, he took another Anomalous Artifact out of his Watch.
It was a crystal-clear glass marble. He handed it to Wei Sen and said, “If there are any other monsters inside the cave, this can provide you with a defensive barrier for five minutes.”
A flicker of suspicion crossed Wei Sen’s eyes.
Could good people really exist in the Eerie World?
Was he worried about her safety, so he was giving her another Anomalous Artifact?!
Seeing her doubt, Lin Ze said bluntly, “I don’t want you dying before the next Instance.”
Wei Sen breathed a sigh of relief. So it was because he still needed her to verify the matter with Ether Group…
Still, this guy really was loaded with Anomalous Artifact. His Watch was like Doraemon’s magic pocket, pulling out Anomalous Artifact as if it cost nothing.
Whoever teamed up with him would basically have the strongest cheat code.
Thinking this, Wei Sen accepted the Anomalous Artifact. “Let’s move!”
///Ding~ Congratulations, Host, you have obtained the B-Rank Anomalous Artifact: Spirit Pearl.
Usage Method 1: Crush it in your hand to obtain a barrier that resists Eerie Entity attacks. Duration: five minutes. (If it encounters a stronger attack, the barrier is not absolutely safe.)
Usage Method 2: Throw it accurately at an Eerie Entity to bind the Eerie Entity for up to five minutes. The exact duration of the binding depends on the strength of the Eerie Entity.///
Lin Ze was the first to arrive at the cave entrance.
“Hey. Come at me!”
The moment Lin Ze finished speaking, the Skeleton Monster lunged out of the cave.
He sidestepped perfectly, then turned and fled into the forest. The Skeleton Monster crawled rapidly on all fours, chasing after him.
Only after the Skeleton Monster had been lured away did Wei Sen step quickly out from behind a tree trunk and head toward the cave.
She had only taken two steps into the cave when she saw a blood-soaked corpse lying on the ground in a twisted posture. Blood had spread all over the ground around the cave entrance.